First days - The adjustment process

Valkommen till Sverige!

We've arrived at Arlanda Airport on 22nd of January. This airport was in the outskirts of Stockholm so we had to take the express train to Stockholm, and then another train to Vasteras. Their trains are double-decked and luxurious (train tickets are 2 times more expensive than regular bus), not something we're familiar with in Turkey.

You can see our plane in the following pic. We only had 2 options, flying Turkish airlines or Pegasus Airlines. It's a small miracle that the direct flight from Istanbul to Stockholm did cost us only 30 euros. It lasted approximately 3 hours, and the seats were big and comfortable (Compared to AirFrance, which is definitely not for people of my size). There are 13 Turkish students here in Malardalen University this semester. 9 Sabanci, 1 Koç and 2 from Işık.

  

After a couple of hours, we finally found ourselves settling in our dorm rooms in Vasteras. There's a total of some 150.000 people living here, and that makes it the 5th biggest city in Sweden in terms of the population (Eskilstuna, the twin city, is bigger territory-wise, but I'll get to this later).

Vasteras train station:

Luckily, my dormitory, ironically called "Junior", is only 100 meters from the university. It takes only 2 minutes to get myself into the classroom, and 7-8 minutes to get to the city center. It's the one that is closest to the campus. There's another student accommodation called "Norra Allegatan", which is maybe 300 meters away, and that's where 5 friends from our group live. We can walk to the faculty easily, but I can't say the same for our friends in the other accommodation "Park Apartment". That place is 5 kilometers away from the faculty, and further from the city center, and the rest of the friends from our group stay there. They have to take the bus in order to get to the university or the city center, otherwise it'll take some 45 minutes walk on snow covered, slippery pavements of Vasteras.

Junior student accomodation: 

 

The kitchens are on each floor and are shared between 10-11 students:

Traces of student life:

 

The kitchen on 4th: Before & After

Here's the view from my window:

Overlooking to the campus from the emergency stairs on my floor (3rd);

Some pictures from the campus:

The third day: Feeling ready for a Swedish semester